COLOGNE, Germany – Apparently not bowed by the train wreck that was Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Sylvester Stallone is teaming up with world champion boxing brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko to make a musical version of his Oscar-winning boxing film Rocky.

Stallone and the Klitschkos, who will produce Rocky: The Musical together with Kevin King Templeton of Stallone’s Rouge Marble shingle, announced the project in Hamburg on Monday.

Stallone said in giving the pugilist classic the Andrew Lloyd Webber treatment he would be focusing on Rocky’s romantic side.
"At the end of the day, Rocky is a love story and he could never have reached the final bell without Adrian,” said Stallone. “To see this story coming to life on a musical stage makes me proud. And it would make Rocky proud."

Broadway veteran Thomas Meehan (The Producers) will write the script to Rocky: the Musical. Ragtime’s Tony-award winning lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty will re-team for the music, which will include songs from the Rocky films, among them “Eye of the Tiger,” “Gonna Fly Now” and “Take You Back.” Tony Award nominee Alex Timbers will direct.
In addition to co-producing, the Klitchko brothers will train the lead actor, who has not yet been cast, in the sweet science.

sical will have its world debut, in German, in Hamburg November 2012. Stallone plans to then take an English version of the musical on the road to stages worldwide.